


Inhale Fire Exhale Desire

by marauders_groupie



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 14:27:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5420540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marauders_groupie/pseuds/marauders_groupie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raven stands up to leave, leaning on her good leg but Clarke isn’t ready to let her go. These days she lets everyone go and they don’t even glance over their shoulders.</p><p>Who could love a girl who smells like death and war?</p><p>And then Raven looks at her, incredulous, and Clarke thinks – well, maybe a girl with skin of gasoline and fingertips like matches.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inhale Fire Exhale Desire

**Author's Note:**

> This happened one morning as I was drinking coffee. I'm actually really happy with it, and I hope you'll be, too. 
> 
> The title is from twenty one pilots - Car Radio.

Clarke Griffin is in love with a girl who is all sharp corners and vengeful fire burning in her eyes.

She is in love with a girl whose body holds the entire universe on her shoulders and Clarke can’t help thinking that she was the one who got her there.

But Raven is a forest fire, her lips speak of bombs and rocket fuel, so much destruction in a girl Clarke wants to adore, and she knows that – before anything else – Raven needs to be free.

So Clarke gives her time. Time to stop sneering at every word, time to adjust to what Raven calls being faulty. They drink moonshine and they talk strategy, children who are now destroyers of the worlds.

No one asked Raven how she felt about the burning ring of fire she set about. No. They call Clarke Wanheda and maybe, just maybe, she is glad that they don’t know she wasn’t alone in killing their people.

Raven has a burden heavy enough to bear, Clarke doesn’t want to push some more on the already fragile shoulders.

But doesn’t she carry the war in her heart so well?

“I’m so fucking tired, Clarke,” she tells her one evening when everyone has already left the bonfire they sit around each night. The Delinquents can’t sleep so they find comfort in each other.

The two of them exchange brief glances, relieved smiles, when Monty tugs Miller into his tent and Monroe drapes her arm around Harper’s shoulders.

They lost so many and it feels like a piece of Clarke’s heart left with every single one.

“I know.”

“Yeah,” Raven snorts. “You would.”

Mm, she would. She does. Everyone’s got their crosses to bear but some of them have entire churches on their backs.

Raven didn’t speak to her for a long time after she killed Finn. And then Clarke watched her tied to a pole in TonDC, heard her screaming in Mt. Weather and this girl, this hurricane in a woman’s body – she has been through so much.

“That’s war, Raven.”

Raven narrows her eyes at Clarke, seething with rage she keeps boiling under her skin every waking moment. “Fuck you, Griffin. I didn’t ask for this.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“You still thought it. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Raven stands up to leave, leaning on her good leg but Clarke isn’t ready to let her go. These days she lets everyone go and they don’t even glance over their shoulder.

Who could love a girl who smells like death and war?

And then Raven looks at her, incredulous, and Clarke thinks – well, maybe a girl with skin of gasoline and fingertips like matches.

“Is there something you want to tell me, Clarke?”

I am looking for a second of calm in the eye of the storm.

You smell like the wind and feel like a hurricane.

I don’t want to trap you. I want to love you and give you freedom.

“Stay with me, please?”

Raven’s brows furrow but she nods, settling closer to Clarke than she had ever been. Her thigh brushes against Clarke’s and there are scales they have had to grow – a thick, hard shell – but maybe they can learn how to be soft again.

“I can’t be with you, if that’s what you’re looking for,” Raven tells her, every word from her mouth laced with poison.

It isn’t personal, Clarke knows, they’ve just been through too much to be children anymore.

“It’s fine. Take all the time you need.”

Raven chuckles, the sound surprising Clarke and when she turns her head to look at her, Raven is smiling a small, wistful smile.

“You killed my first love.”

“I did.”

“I don’t hate you for it. Not anymore.”

Raven’s lips against hers are like the flares illuminating the night sky, a moment of abandon so reckless it smashes Clarke to pieces and then builds her anew. Raven is fire and passion with her hands gripping the back of Clarke’s neck and even their knees knocking is a comfort in its own.

Clarke Griffin loves Raven Reyes and for that, she wants to see her get away. She wants to see her inhaling freedom and exhaling joy, wants to see her get away far from this funeral pyre of their own making.

Together, they can find redemption.

Separate, they can find freedom.

**Author's Note:**

> That's it! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you liked it. If you did, please remember kudos & comments because those are my faves and they'll make my day.
> 
> p.s. i'm also on [tumblr](http://marauders-groupie.tumblr.com).


End file.
